In Two, Over You
by Mystikat
Summary: Caught in a terrible fever, Rachel dreams and looks for something to hold on to. Future-fic. Established Puck/Rachel, pseudo-Matt, various others.


**In Two, Over You**

_Matt is sitting next to her on the bleachers. She has sawdust in her mouth._

_She turns to him and asks about what happened to not being _just another football player?

_He doesn't answer, just asks her what happened_ to her_ instead._

_It's a long story._

**{&}**

"Baby, your spotlight's getting hogged by that uppity understudy of yours. Don't you want to get up and put her in her place?"

"Yeah, Berry, let her keep Puck company under your heel."

A rasping chuckle. "It's not a bad place to be once you get used to it."

"You heard the man. Get up, and show him who's boss."

**{&}**

_There's slushie dripping off the ends of her hair. Puck is holding an empty cup. Puck has nothing in his hands._

_Puck is holding her hips._

Look what you did._ She sucks a strand into her mouth._ Made me wet and sticky._ Matt's hand tugs her away from Puck's grasp, is gone once she's free. _

Made me alone.

_A little part of her wonders if she could have survived without the brief attention his actions brought to her._

_She'd rather be alone than unnoticed._

**{&}**

"Diva, I flew out here to watch you shackle yourself to our childhood tormentor; not to watch this fever fry your brain like an egg. Just-stop it, okay?"

"We're going to eat Rachel's brain?"

**{&}**

_For a time, she dreams about zombies. Matt wields a grub-hoe with surprising grace._

**{&}**

"Rachel, please, we need you. The way you're on us all the time-where would we be without it? I never told you, I should've told you; you're the best friend a guy could ask for. Despite everything.

I need to get the chance to tell you, Rachel. It can be my toast at your wedding. All you need to do is open your eyes."

**{&}**

_She's in a corner. In a chair. There's a bed across from her, and Finn is naked in it._

When you care about someone.

_His face crumbles in._

When you want them to be happy.

It's time to tell them.

_And then he tries to do the same to Puck's._

**{&}**

"I always knew you'd make it, Rachel. Not just because you had the talent, but because you put in the time; you weren't the kind to take a break. I knew I'd see you on stage someday. And, even after all those years of watching you sing, you blew me away.

You have thousands of fans now Rachel, but I'll always be your biggest. I need to see you on stage again. There's too much life in you for you not to come through.

You're Rachel Berry; you don't give up."

**{&}**

_She's in Spanish class. Noah's fingers are twined in her hair, there are bruises on her thighs._

_Mr. Schue kneels beside her chair, slides her skirt up and writes, in lazy sprawl, an E just below her panties._

E for effort, right?

_She tries to turn her face away, but Puck's fingers are too tight in her locks, trapping her._

_Matt isn't there this time._

**{&}**

"We were never meant to be friends, you and I. I know you tried, and I stopped hating you a long time ago, but I can't fully forgive you for taking them. You took part of me away with them, and Finn left his mark on my heart and Puck left stretch marks.

Maybe it wasn't about them, maybe I wanted something to be mine.

I took your forgiveness for granted because I couldn't give you the same.

You have to let me tell you-you owe me that much."

**{&}**

_Noah is inside her in all ways. He is a constant, firm movement that she can't help but rise to meet._

_He pants in her ear, she gasps; unable to do more than buck and sigh and sweat._

Wet and sticky, right?_ He bites her lip. _That's what I make you?

Don't go, don't-

_Alone._

_Matt pulls her into his lap._ Why are you here, football player?

_A shrug. _Why are you still wearing slushie?

_Oh, is that why she's freezing?_

**{&}**

("We need you."

But what does she need?)

**{&}**

_They're sitting on the bleachers. The old them._

I want everything too much.

_It's true, she's spent her life grasping, pursuing something real. Something that will last. Pictures and trophies and tangible trinkets._

_She watches who they were and, yeah, not much has changed. She wants the awards, the fame, the house, the ring._

Our relationship is built on a fantasy.

_But what she needs._

_What she needs is waiting for her to wake up._

**{&}**

He's holding her hand, she's (sticky and wet) covered in sweat, but he's still there. She curls her limp fingers around his; real and tangible.

It just might last.

**Author's Note: **Title taken from "Bonfire", by Third Eye Blind.

Before you ask, the order of speakers are as follows: Santana/Puck, Kurt/Brittany, Finn, Will, Quinn. I tried to put enough hints in to clarify who was who, but I know that some of it probably will only make sense to me.

Matt is present to act as her sub-conscious guide. Because he was the most not-there but still there person in the group, and I wanted someone relatively objective but still familiar to be there in her fever dreams.

Yes, I focus more on the messed-up earlier aspects of the Puck/Rachel relationship. I hate glossing over the fact that the dude was a huge bully in her life, and I wanted to show a confrontation of that. She forgave him, but did she ever really deal with it?

I loathe how long this AN is. But hopefully it will clear up questions that I would be answering in review replies.

Oh! And this was prompted by "She needs to wake up." in the LJ community "puckrachel".


End file.
